'"TAKE CARE WITH THE DIAMONDS!"

Take Care’  and  ‘Diamonds’  were both great speech titles for this week’s speeches at Pania Toastmasters Club.

And what a great meeting room to hear these speeches, clean, tidy and always well organised thanks to, both of our vigilant members, Graeme and Ian.

Marc, our Toastmaster of the day, welcomed everyone and presented a well organised agenda which was followed by all in a prompt manner. A big thanks must go to members who step up and fill in for those who get called away suddenly, excellent team work!

David, our first speaker was introduced by Graeme in his usual professional manner. He read the objectives of David’s speech so we all knew what goals were to be reached. Graeme evaluated David’s speech by offering commendations and recommendations. He did this by using examples of various parts of the speech and offered ideas for improvements. Both Graeme and David’s contributions finished with very good endings.

Anna introduced and evaluated Barbara. Anna began her evaluation by commending Barbara on the beginning of her speech and then went onto read and discuss the objectives. Barbara is particularly clever with creating poetry and she shared part of a poem from a very dear and long time friend’s funeral service. They had known one another for 50 years hence the title, ‘Diamonds’. Anna offered a recommendation for using more pitch, pace and pause during the poetry reading. This was good information for all those who read poems/ articles during their speeches.

Table Topics was led by Jane who used some very different and thought provoking topics. Jane also gave the topic first and then the speakers name as this gets everyone thinking about what they would say on the topic.

The Table topic speakers were; Helen with “recycling bottles as they do in Australia”, Noel with “capital gains tax”, Russell with “fines for dog attacks”, Linda with “police pursuits, chasing stolen cars or lives”, Ian with “a branch line for trucks between Pan Pac and Napier Port”.

Table topics certainly had the speaker thinking. Carol who did a great job evaluating each speaker by commending them all and offering recommendations where necessary. She used positive examples for each in a clever manner.

Thanks to Rebecca for keeping time on all the speakers. Helen as General Evaluator finished the meeting off by evaluating the evaluators, presenting the awards and then Marc closed off another successful meeting right on 1pm.

Best speaker; Barbara

Best Evaluator; Carol

Best Table topics; Linda

'SEISMIC THOUGHTS on WHO LIKES MONEY?"

‘Seismic Thoughts & Money on Your Mind’

The first Toastmaster’s meeting of the year started with a great turnout of members and one guest, with an interesting jam packed meeting agenda. It was ably facilitated by our Toast Master of the day Darryl, and everyone was met personally and given a clearly written agenda to follow. A reminder to members to fill in their leadership books was also timely, maybe this will be the year I complete mine!

In addition, the new whiteboard (evidenced by the plastic wrapping) was unveiled and was well-used throughout the meeting. Thanks Craig.

We were privileged to hear two thought provoking speeches. Our first speaker Noel was warmly introduced by Barbara and we also heard how he had influenced her return to the TM fold. The title of his speech was ‘Seismic Thoughts,’ and we were treated to insider knowledge of how engineers and the Wellington City Council had worked together in checking buildings to ensure public safety after the recent earthquake. Earthquakes are inevitable in this country and each one has a unique pattern which determines the extent of damage that results. Listening to this speech was reassuring for Barbara and she gave a very positive evaluation. She had one recommendation to give it more impact – stop, drop and hold!

Our second speaker was introduced by Graeme with the question, ‘Who likes money,’ well who doesn’t? So we were all primed to hear Patrick’s speech ‘What is Inflation’. This technically difficult topic was broken down for the fiscally challenged, along with the role that inflation plays and the factors that influence it, and all of which were ably explained. The concluding comments asked us to weigh the benefits of inflation versus deflation and made us aware that what the government does with the budget affects us personally. Graeme gave a very affirming evaluation and no recommendations. Given that this was a speech put together at very short notice this was well deserved feedback.

Table Topics was well received by the audience with questions put by Petrice on what participants had done in the festive season. Laurel had grandchildren from Australia running amok through her house for Christmas, in Carol’s household everyone chose their favourite scrumptious sounding dish, Craig had all his family together in beautiful Gisborne for his favourite holiday memory, Mike went to bed early on New Year’s Eve but got up for the fireworks and Helen neatly sidestepped her New Year’s resolution by an ‘intention’ to take mini holidays in NZ. All of the speakers spoke well and entertained us with their stories of holiday fun. As a result Russell had no recommendations for anyone and gave positive feedback to all.Linda  gave us a well rounded general Evaluation, in the time available and Jen utilised an app. from the Toastmaster's website to assist with a full Timekeeper's report.

A most enjoyable meeting and a taste of many more to come this year.

Best Speaker: Patrick

Best Evaluator: Barbara

Best Table Topic: Craig